Canadian divers Bouchard, Gagne pick up silver at event

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The Canadian Press5/19/2013 5:02:29 PM

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Maxim Bouchard of St-Constant, Que., and Philippe Gagne of Montreal won the silver medal in the men's 10-metre synchro on Sunday to conclude the fifth stop on the FINA Grand Prix diving circuit.

Huo Liang and Jiang Yang of China were the victors with 444.24 points followed by the Canadians at 379.32 and David Dinsmore and Christopher Law of the U.S., third at 340.38.

Bouchard and Gagne were only 11 points from the world championship standard heading into next week's world team trials at the Summer Nationals in Quebec City.

"Considering this was only our second competition together we are very pleased," said Bouchard, 22, seven-years older than his partner. "We have good chemistry and our synchronicity is very good. We can get those 11 points we need by improving the quality of our individual dives."

On men's three-metre, Cody Yano of Edmonton came within eight points of his first international medal, placing fourth.

Cesar Castro of Brazil won the gold medal with 467.45 points with Sun Zhiyi of China second at 452.65 and Constantin Blaha of Austria third at 439.30. Yano followed with a personal best 427.10.

"This was really a great weekend for me," said the 22-year-old. "I am starting to achieve the consistency I need in my diving to be successful. I know there is room for improvement and I just want to keep getting better next week"

Canada ended the competition with three medals. On Saturday, Emma Friesen of North Vancouver took silver on women's three-metre and Gagne earned bronze on men's 10-metre.

Canada's divers will battle for spots on the world championship team at the Summer Senior National Championships May 23-26 in Quebec City.